Birth Blog

I have been INVADED with emails and messages recently asking for recommendations for all things birth in Paris.

Unfortunately, as much as I’d love to reply to you all individually – as I used to do before my little one arrived - or meet with you and discuss your individual needs and circumstances fully, I really don’t have the time that I used to.

So I decided that I would try to almagamate a quick list of the wonderful people I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the last few years in Paris, as my sort of little black book for birth.

If I’ve recommended someone here then that usually means I have personally used or had experience with their services, OR they come highly recommended to me by another mamma I’ve worked with in Paris.

If you offer services in the birth world and I haven’t recommended you here then please do feel free to contact me and invite me along to observe or participate in your services so that I may be able to recommend them from personal experience:

Over time I will be adding more contacts and more detailed info about other Pregnancy & Birth services in Paris so please do revisit as this is only the skeleton for now. Please also feel free to share a link to this page with pregnant or soon-to-be pregnant friends, or on your own websites…

N.B those services/professionals who I know are also English speaking are marked with a triple star symbol ***

Midwives & Doctors in Paris

Midwives :

As the gold standard of care I cannot even begin to list the benefits of having a sage femme liberale (Independent Midwife) who works from a ‘Accompagnement Globale’ (Continuity of Care in English) model of care.

What ‘Accompagnement Globale’ (AGN) means is that you have the same Midwife who you see through the whole of pregnancy for all of your antenatal appointments, AND she comes to your birth, as well as doing your postnatal visits after the birth.

Research has shown that this model of care has so many benefits for women - both physical and pyschological – and I have ONLY good feedback from women in Paris who I have recommended this model of care to.

These women ALWAYS say that they had no idea at the beginning of their pregnancy how pivotal a sage femme AGN would be to their perinatal wellbeing, and that it changed their whole experience to have a Midwife that they knew and trusted and were able to form a relationship with her before the birth.

***Groupe Naissance :www.groupenaissances.org. Phone their secretary Audrey to book an appointment with one of the Midwives :07 81 02 81 60

Groupe Naissance are a group of Sages Femmes Liberales all working in the ‘continuity of care model’ described above. I can personally say that Nadia and Sidonie are both INCREDIBLE Midwives, and I have only heard good things about all of the Midwives in Groupe Naissance (GN). The Midwives in this group are all commited to physiological birth wherever possible and reducing any unnecessary intevention.

GN operate in 2 different Clinics in Paris (Saint Therese and Jean D’Arc), where they have a ‘plateau technique’ which essentially means they have an agreement to use a room in these Clinics for their births.

The Groupe Naissance Midwives also have their own specific Doctors who they work with, which means that if you did need any intervention from a Doctor during pregnancy and Birth this would be provided by one of the Groupe Naissance Doctors who are more aligned with the same principles of supporting physiological birth and minimising unnecessary interventions. You can read more about their philosophy on their website

Read more about AGN at CALM here : www.mdncalm.org/laccompagnement-global-a-la-naissance-agn/

There is only one birth centre in Paris and the Midwives there all work from the Accompagnement Globale model. If you get a place there (it’s notoriously difficult to get a spot here as there is so much demand for it) then you will be allocated a Midwife or team of 2 Midwives who will follow you through your whole pregnancy and birth.

To get a place there you need to register early !! In order to put your name down to be considered **you have to attend one of their Monthly meetings which take place every first Tuesday of the month at 7pm.**

Check out their website for which meeting dates correspond with women with which pregnancy due dates. I.E. the meeting in September is for women expecting their babies in March/April 2017 ONLY

Home Birth Midwives :

There are very few homebirth Midwives in Paris and they tend to get booked up very early so it’s advisable to book an appointment with them as soon as you get pregnant :

Doctors :

Research shows time and time again that for low risk women with ‘normal’ pregnancies i.e. those without ‘complications’ (for want of a better word) then Midwives are *The best placed professionals* to provide pregnancy, birth and postnatal care.

Therefore I must start this section by expressing fiercely that I do not encourage women with low risk uncomplicated pregnancies to have their pregnancy or birth care delivered by an Obtetrician unless there is a specific reason.

This is especially the case for birth as research has shown that the very presence of an Obstetrician in the room can increase the chance of a birth intervention (epidural, forceps, caesarean section etc) significantly (I think it’s FOUR TIMES as much – I need to double check the research !) compared to if there are only Midwives in the room.

I have not personally ever had care from Obstetrician or Gynaecologist in France but the following OBGYNs have been recommended to me by several women and are also 2 of the OBGYNs who are part of Group Naissance :

Amazing Amazing Amazing. This was one of my favourite things I did during pregnancy. If not THE favourite. If you are pregnant in Paris GO and do a water relaxation with Lolo aka Aqua Serena Go go GO!!!!

During the really tough bits of my labour I had flashbacks to these beautiful moments in the water, being held by Lolo: Of floating weightless & free in the water...I could have never imagined when we did the sessions together in Paris in May & June, how much it would help me to stay calm & focused during my homebirth in July.

You can watch this beautiful video of Lolo to get a feel for her wonderful work; vimeo.com/222653936